Graha

Saturn (Shani)

शनि

Saturn, Shani or Shanaishchara, the slow-moving one, is the most distant of the planets the tradition watches and the slowest: about twenty-nine and a half years to go round the zodiac, some two and a half years in each sign. In the stories it is the son of the Sun and Chhaya, the shadow, and its glance is feared. In a chart it stands for discipline, work, endurance, service, delay and the lessons of time, and its passage over the Moon sign is Sade Sati, the seven and a half years the tradition watches above all, which the site dates from Saturn's actual stays in each sign. Saturday is its day. Its special aspects fall on the third and tenth signs from it. This page gives what the site's tables hold for Saturn: the signs it rules, its dignities by degree, its friends and enemies, its directional strength, its dasha and its readings in the signs and houses.

At a glance

Nature
Natural malefic
Day
Saturday
Vimshottari dasha
19 years
Directional strength
7th house
Combust within
15°

What Saturn signifies

The site's table of significations, the natural karakatva the birth report reads, gives Saturn: discipline, longevity, career, service, delay, perseverance.

Saturn is one of the natural malefics in the site's table, with the Sun, Mars, Rahu and Ketu. Natural nature is only half the story: what a graha is for a particular chart depends on the houses it rules from that chart's Lagna, which each sign's page sets out.

Signs and dignities

Saturn rules Capricorn and Aquarius. Its dignities, as the site's table gives them, by degree where Parashara divides a sign (Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra, the chapter on the planets, tr. R. Santhanam):

Friends and enemies

The natural friendships the site reckons with (Parashara's, in the table every dignity and strength is worked from):

A planet in the sign of a friend is comfortable there, in an enemy's ill at ease; the sign pages list who is where.

Aspects, combustion and direction

Saturn aspects the 3rd, 7th and 10th signs from the one it occupies. Every graha aspects the seventh; the others are its special aspects. Aspects are by sign, not by an orb of degrees. Saturn is combust, lost in the Sun's light, when within 15° of the Sun (Surya Siddhanta). It gains directional strength, dig bala, in the 7th house.

In transit, counted from the Moon sign, the classical gochara table the site uses counts Saturn favourable in the 3rd, 6th and 11th houses.

Its dasha and its nakshatras

Saturn rules Pushya, Anuradha and Uttara Bhadrapada, one in each third of the zodiac. Its period in the Vimshottari dasha lasts 19 years, of the cycle's 120; a person born with the Moon in one of its nakshatras begins life in it.

Saturn in the twelve signs

Varahamihira's readings of a birth with Saturn in each sign, as the birth report quotes them (Brihat Jataka, tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer). He adds that a sign's effects come in full only when the planet, the sign and its lord are strong.

In Aries. With Saturn in Aries, Varahamihira gives a hard reading: a restless, wandering life, a taste for show, few friends, and judgement that needs care. (Brihat Jataka 18.17, tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer (1905))

In Taurus. With Saturn in Taurus, Varahamihira describes modest wealth and more than one marriage. (Brihat Jataka 18.18, tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer (1905))

In Gemini. With Saturn in Gemini, Varahamihira describes work in clerical, guarding or enforcing roles, even at their head, but also sorrow, limited means, few children and little regard for what others think. (Brihat Jataka 18.17, tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer (1905))

In Cancer. With Saturn in Cancer, Varahamihira gives a hard reading: limited means, separation from the mother, few children, poor teeth, and judgement that needs care. (Brihat Jataka 18.18, tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer (1905))

In Leo. With Saturn in Leo, Varahamihira gives a hard reading: heavy burdens and sorrow, little recognition, and few children. (Brihat Jataka 18.18, tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer (1905))

In Virgo. With Saturn in Virgo, Varahamihira describes work in clerical, guarding or enforcing roles, even at their head, but also sorrow, limited means, few children and little regard for what others think. (Brihat Jataka 18.17, tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer (1905))

In Libra. With Saturn in Libra, Varahamihira describes a well-known and prosperous person who leads a group, in a town, a force or a village. (Brihat Jataka 18.18, tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer (1905))

In Scorpio. With Saturn in Scorpio, Varahamihira gives a hard reading: a harsh streak, little will to work, and a risk of confinement and of injury. (Brihat Jataka 18.17, tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer (1905))

In Sagittarius. With Saturn in Sagittarius, Varahamihira describes a trusted servant of those in power who becomes a leading figure in the town, with good wealth, a good spouse and children, and a peaceful end of life. (Brihat Jataka 18.19, tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer (1905))

In Capricorn. With Saturn in Capricorn, Varahamihira describes lasting wealth and authority, at the head of a town, a force or a village, the enjoyment of what one has earned, and weak eyes; he also warns against careless habits and against taking what belongs to others. (Brihat Jataka 18.19, tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer (1905))

In Aquarius. With Saturn in Aquarius, Varahamihira describes lasting wealth and authority, at the head of a town, a force or a village, the enjoyment of what one has earned, and weak eyes; he also warns against careless habits and against taking what belongs to others. (Brihat Jataka 18.19, tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer (1905))

In Pisces. With Saturn in Pisces, Varahamihira describes a trusted servant of those in power who becomes a leading figure in the town, with good wealth, a good spouse and children, and a peaceful end of life. (Brihat Jataka 18.19, tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer (1905))

Saturn in the twelve houses

The readings the birth report gives for Saturn in each house, counted from the Lagna:

In the 1st house. Saturn in the 1st house gives a serious, disciplined and responsible nature; maturity, struggle and patience shape you, with strength rising in later life.

In the 2nd house. Saturn in the 2nd house brings measured speech and slow, steady accumulation of wealth; early financial restriction yields to discipline and saving.

In the 3rd house. Saturn in the 3rd house gives persistent, hard-won courage and disciplined effort; you succeed through patience, though siblings may be distant.

In the 4th house. Saturn in the 4th house can delay home comforts and bring early domestic burden; property and peace are earned through long, patient responsibility.

In the 5th house. Saturn in the 5th house brings a disciplined intellect and possible delay or seriousness regarding children, romance and speculation; learning is deep but slow.

In the 6th house. Saturn in the 6th house is strongly placed to grind down enemies, debts and disease through sheer persistence; you excel in disciplined, dutiful service.

In the 7th house. Saturn in the 7th house often delays marriage but brings a mature, lasting partnership; commitment, duty and patience define your relationships.

In the 8th house. Saturn in the 8th house can grant longevity and deep, patient research into hidden matters; it brings slow transformation and tests through chronic struggle.

In the 9th house. Saturn in the 9th house brings fortune through hard work and a traditional, dutiful approach to dharma; faith and luck mature slowly with discipline.

In the 10th house. Saturn in the 10th house is excellent for a lasting career built on discipline, responsibility and persistence; you rise slowly but surely to authority.

In the 11th house. Saturn in the 11th house brings steady, substantial gains over time through perseverance; older, reliable friends and long effort fulfil your ambitions.

In the 12th house. Saturn in the 12th house inclines towards solitude, foreign lands, renunciation and disciplined spiritual practice; it warns of isolation and quiet labour.

Observances

The tradition's observances for Saturn, as the site's reference lists them. Saturday is its day and Lord Shani / Lord Hanuman its deity. Its mantra is "Om Shanaye Namah", and its beej mantra "Om Praam Preem Praum Sah Shanaischaraya Namaha", recited 108 times. The customary gifts: donate black sesame, mustard oil or iron on Saturdays; serve the poor and laborers. Its stotra is the Shani Stotra.

Its stone is the Blue Sapphire (Neelam). The site advises a stone only from a chart: its remedies page strengthens a planet whose Shadbala falls short of what it needs only where that planet is a friend of the chart, and never from a transit or a sign alone.

Use the tools

  • See where Saturn stands in your chart and how strong it is by Shadbala: free birth chart.
  • Its present sign and the day's panchang: panchang; its transit through your Moon sign: horoscope.
  • All nine: the grahas.